The cold dark cell compared nothing to the Hope Home. They had been raided and shut down, as had most of the other HH's. Those in control didn't approve of the slums. The girl opened her eyes slowly and looked around in a daze as the cold rushed to her bones. She became aware of an intense pain on her head that throbbed with her heartbeat, and also that she was being held by strong arms that she thankfully recognised immediately.

"Hey there sweetie, you awake?" said the familiar voice. Looking up at his handsome face she scrambled to get away from this show of affection, almost frightened, but smiled weakly and nodded. "Be careful now, they hit your head pretty hard." Touching her wound gently she felt a mat of hair crusted with blood and a large lump rising under it. Sitting up, she gazed in scared suspicion at all her 'cell mates'. There was the smaller man, his blonde hair now in droopy spikes around his friendly eyes, dulled slightly but still captivatingly wide and blue. He had been wounded on the side of his head, the scarlet blood only emphasised against his white-blonde hair, and was holding a small child who was sobbing pitifully into his chest. Beside him was another man, slightly taller but just as thing, and another man taller still yet with a muscular build that seemed almost natural. One of them had floppy chestnut hair, damp with sweat, that fell around his eyes, hiding them. His hands writhed together as though with nothing to do and he was mumbling softly under his breath. The other man had a long scar between his eyes from left to right. His strawberry-blonde hair, slightly too long for the style it was in, was back against his head with two floaty bits hanging over the scar. He had his arm around the first man and was trying futilely to comfort him. "What happened to Squall?" asked the man that was holding her, worried.

"Rinoa…she got caught…" said the scarred man, looking over at them. "We tried to run but she…" he trailed off as Squall started shaking, choking back desperate sobs. The small man turned to Squall and muttered words of consolation to him. "Well Irvine, how do we get out of this one?" said the scarred man, sighing. The man who rescued her shook his head cynically.

"I really don't know Seifer," he mumbled, "we've never been in this kind of predicament."

"Sure we have!" said the smaller man, standing up and clenching his fists in excitement. "We got arrested in Galbadia once, then thrown in prison! We managed to get out of that one."

"Yea, but you knew the prison then, didn't you. Do you know this one?" the small man's spirit became damped once more, gently he rubbed his wrists.

"It's damned weird not having my gloves on, but that doesn't mean I can't still cause some serious damage with 'em," he said, punching at the air. "Give me a chance and I could take any one of those slimy fucking guards!"

"Zell!" said a woman with long, greasy, blonde hair clipped limply behind her head. She looked disapprovingly up at him with a motherly frown. She pointed to the little girl that Zell was holding before, "watch your language." Zell covered his mouth and looked at the little girl mischievously. Kneeling down, he laughed behind his hand and mumbled, "I got in twouble." The little girl giggled and nodded. "I'm sowwy Qwistis," he said mockingly. The lady shook her head and smiled.

"We may live in the slums Zell, but these children can still grow up right. They have to learn not to resort to swearing or violence to get their point across."

"Those guards didn't exactly help," said Seifer, taking his arm from around the now calmer Squall. "I mean, beating us all up like that, we weren't even armed. Caught me at a charitable moment. Talking of which, when exactly did they take my blade?"

"The same time they took mine," mumbled Squall, lifting his face up. His eyes were red from his crying and the paths of his tears were still clearly visible. He also had a scar across his face but in the opposite direction to Seifer's. The girl could see that his eyes would be a beautiful dark, misty blue, if it weren't for the bloodshot lines. Seifer laughed slightly, trying to raise the spirits of everyone.

"It lives, welcome to this world Squall," he said almost cheerfully. Squall shot him an icy glare and stood up. He frowned as he set eyes upon the girl. "Who are you?" he demanded, wary of any new faces. All the rest of the people turned their heads to hear the answer, although more out of friendly curiosity. Zell, Seifer, Irvine, Quistis, the little girl and a few other people that were in the cell with them. The girl became unnerved by all the eyes set on her and looked down. Irvine lifted her chin up so he could look into her eyes and smiled.

"Come on, we're not that scary, are we?" She smiled back weakly and looked at all those watching her.

"My name's Nestella," she said quietly, "I'm mostly known as Nez though, not Stella," she added, trying a laugh to ease her nerves.

"Cute name," said Irvine, stretching his arms up. Zell suddenly jumped into his fighting stance once more positively shaking with delight at his idea.

"I got it!" he shouted then lowered his voice to a whisper as the guard snorted in his sleep, "I mean, sure, I don't know this place, but that doesn't mean I cant use my weapon to help get us out anyway!" He shook his fists at Seifer's face, who raised his eyebrows and pushed the fists away. "See! Your and Squall's gunblades have been swiped, so has Quistis' whip I'm guessing." Quistis nodded solemnly.

"Right after they took your gloves," she said.

"So, what's holding me back? As I said before, my only weapons are these fists o' mine!" He ran to the bars and looked out. "I'm sure we can get out of this, we used to be SeeDs for Christ's sake. We beat Ultimicia, we did so much!" Turning back he looked directly at Nez. "I don't know where the hell this came from, but Quezacotl keeps telling me there's something about you." Nez looked at him, putting on a confused front.

"Quezacotl? Who's that?" she lied. Zell explained to her about his GF, Guardian Force, how it was inside his head and had been for as long as he could remember, how he could summon it to help him in battle, oblivious that she already knew full well.

"All the SeeDs here have one. Squall has Shiva," Nez's eyes widened as she recognised the names, "Quistis has Ifrit, Seifer has the Brothers, Rinoa has Sir…" He trailed off after seeing the painful flicker behind Squall's eyes, a sign that only those who had known him long enough could pick up on. "Woa, sorry dude, wasn't thinkin'" Squall shook his head and smiled slightly. Coughing, Zell continued his rallying speech. "We used to have more, but we lost a few. Anyway, Quezacotl is saying that you aren't just the street urchin that you make yourself out to be." Nez looked around nervously, Zell sensed this. "I knew it! There is something special! What is it?" All attention was yet again turned on Nez.

"We can talk about that when we get out," said Squall, leaning a criticising hand on his hip, "I'm with Zell on that idea. I mean, we can't just stay here to be tortured or killed or whatever." The children that were in the cell with them whimpered. "Zell still has his weapon in theory, he can probably easily find ours. We just need to get him out, and I think I know how." Squall walked up to Zell slowly and whispered something into his ear. Zell smiled and drew his fist back as Squall shut his eyes to brace himself.

"You bastard! How dare you say that!" screamed Zell and slammed his fist into Squalls face at an angle that wouldn't hurt him too much.

"I can say what I want, chicken-wuss!" Squall shouted back taking a swing at Zell's face. Zell dodged this easily and pushes Squall into the bars making a deafening clang ring out waking up the nearby guard. Just as was expected, two guards dressed in the royal blue of the RG's came rushing in to see Zell holding onto a battered Squall by the collar. They quickly unlocked the door to the cell and struggled to get a very well acted Zell off Squall. Dragging him out they lifted their trunchons just as Zell stood up properly. In a quick brawl, Zell came out on top and, waving to the rest, ran off in search of the weapons leaving the three dazed guards lying on the floor. The attention was turned to Squall as Quistis ran to the sink outside the cell and brought back a dirty wet cloth to dab on his face. "Damn, I'd never win in a fight like that against Zell, no-one could. Those fists of his hurt like hell," he mumbled as Quistis nursed him.

Suddenly a loud piercing siren echoed through the building. The curses of Zell were heard in the distance and began to get closer. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" he mumbled in panic as he ran back in, arms laden with the gunblades, pinwheel, shotgun, whip and numchuku. Irvine's face lit up with hope as he saw the numchuku. "Selphie's numchuku are here! That means she must be here! We have to find her!" shouted Zell as he handed the weapons out. Squall grabbed his Lionheart and Rinoa's Shooting Star pinwheel, Seifer his Hyperion, Irvine his Exeter shotgun and Quistis her Save the Queen whip. Zell had already slipped on his red gloves, Ehrgeiz, the leather flaking slightly from age and the metal plates on the knuckles were beginning to rust. The gunblades were also rusting, as were the other weapons. However they seemed to work just fine as guard after guard was thrown to the ground with either a slash down their front, a bullet in their stomach, a wound from the blade atop Quistis' whip or a battered face. As in the Galbadian prison however, they couldn't use magic or their GF's but they still were fierce and very pissed off at being imprisoned. Gathering up the children and dragging the older ones, the former SeeD's made a path and a formidable team.

Selphie thought she was going mad. It had been so long since she had heard the voice of anyone; the loud siren must be getting to her, she thought she heard her name being called out. Dare she answer? What if it was a trick? A mean trick by one of the guards to give her a false sense of hope. She continued to listen. There it was again, over and over.

"Selphie?! Where are you Selphie?! It's me, Irvine, answer me please!!" screamed Irvine, darting to every cell door and peering into the gloom. There was the odd figure inside the odd cell; he couldn't help them though. They might be murderers anyway; they might be in there for a real reason. He tried again. "For Christ's sake Selphie shout back! I know you're here, I have your numchuku, answer me baby, please!" Selphie's eyes lit up, it was him, it was Irvine. In a breaking voice she screeched back.

"Irvine? Irvine I'm here! Follow my voice, I'm right here!" Irvine ran around blindly trying to find the source, growling in frustration at every cell that didn't contain her. After a few desperate minutes he found her. They stared at eachother for what seemed like hours, then she spoke. "Hey Irvy, how are ya?" He almost cried. Irvine motioned for her to stand back and aimed his shotgun at the lock. He was pushed back slightly from the power of his weapon against a target at point blank but wasted no time in flinging open the door and running inside. He threw his arms around Selphie and buried his face in her neck.

"Oh God Selphie, I thought I'd never see you again," he mumbled into her. She gently stroked his hair, whispering words of comfort and not bothering to fight back her tears. He pulled back and checked her over, "you're okay, right? They didn't hurt you?" Selphie nodded and wiped her tears away. Laughing joyously, Irvine passed her her numchuku and grabbed her hand, pulling her to safety. Once outside they met the others, fighting to buy time to wait for them.

"Let's go," shouted Seifer, leading the way as usual, "we'll cry and cuddle when we're safe." Selphie laughed for the first time in years, she had missed Seifer's sarcastic humour. Spinning her numchuku around her head and back into her hands she summoned her GF, Diablos, the bat daemon. It felt like she was stretching her legs for the first time after a journey that had lasted 2 years, at last she was back with her friends. As the whole party came back into view once Diablos had gone, all they saw was a huge crater and several guards lying inside. Selphie looked around suddenly in panic.

"Where's Squall?" she queried.

The blue glint of the almighty Lionheart was all the guards saw before they fell to the ground. One after the other they either fought and fell or ran like cowards for nothing could come between this man and his lady. Shouting out her name till his throat was hoarse he ran from cellblock to cell block. In return she shouted back for her hero, rattling the cell bars to make it quite clear where she was. He found her and slammed his blade into the lock, breaking it with ease. The happy reunion, as Rinoa found out, would have to wait, as he grabbed her hand harshly and dragged her after him. Running outside to the sound of reinforcements, they joined the others shortly after Selphie queried after them. Seifer turned to Zell and nodded, smirking in anticipation. Zell nodded back, bringing his fist up to his face in concentration and throwing it forward as the sky blackened. Sharp bolts of lightning shot across the sky and a larger one to the ground, throwing up a cloud of burnt dust. Quezacotl made its grand entrance and searched for its victim. Finding them already dead it looked for Zell in confusion. He reappeared and grinned up at the lightning bird, hopping up its tail and onto its back as it bent down realising what it's true role was now. Shouting for the others to join him, they also reappeared and ran up onto the back. Screeching and flapping its huge wings, Quezacotl flew upwards and away to a new and un-known destination.